Best Graphic Novel Series Recommendations

I've read Watchmen and currently finishing Y: The Last Man. What are some other good graphic novels which are in a compete set similiar to Watchmen or a small number of trade paperbacks. I'm more if a fan of stories that don't necessarily involve super heroes. Any ideas?

Upvote for Preacher. Absolutely incredible series. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.

I got to the "short stories" collection and thought, "oh great, here we go, some bullshit about the minor characters that doesn't even fit the main plot... waste of my time..." and I ended up being so blown away that it became some of my favorite stuff from the series.

im not a huge reader of GNs but, although its spread over 10 books, its well worth getting. really enjoyed preacher and its been banded about for a film and tv show but god knows if itll ever happen. only problem you might find is i struggled to get the last issue, seemed to be a limited run.

'aight, the main Sandman story starts in Preludes and Nocturnes and continues onwards in this order:

-Preludes and Nocturnes -The Doll's House -Dream Country -Season Of Mists -A Game Of You -Fables And Reflections -Brief Lives -Worlds' End -The Kindly Ones -The Wake

That's the main story in order from start to finish. Each book usually contains around... 8 or so issues I'd say? If you want to read Sandman, this is the order you should read the collections in. Hope that helps :)

I can empathize with both sides here. I just recently got to the point where I really GOT Sandman. It's amazing.

But I had to finish the entire series before I made that realization. I started reading it a couple of times before this year, and then I finally found/was pointed to the above reading order. The story pulled me right in, and now I'm a believer!

EDIT: I'm stoned, and forgot the original post mentioned Preacher and Transmetropolitan. I also cannot recommend either of them more. Most entertaining!

I've been reading sandman over and over for ten years or so. i was reading it in middle school. shit is awesome, but i don't get where you guys are getting any of the confusion from. the books are numbered, you read them, it's awesome, done.

The first printing of the collections just had titles, no numbers. You could do a little research and see which issues each collection contained, but short from doing that, the order of the collections was not obvious.

It is a very deep and involved story. Sometimes it feels as if you're reading something that has no bearing on the real meat of the story...but Gaiman is a masterful storyteller, and insignificant details will crop up and become great catalysts.

Once I read the first book, I was hooked. I sat down and read the entire series in about 3 days...then I reread them slower so that I could really absorp the nuances of the story.

This is definately a must read if you are into literature and mythology.

That being said, I'd also recommend Preacher, and honestly any of the Alan Moore books

The UK editions may be slightly different but it's #4 Ancient History. Not listed from the wiki but it's just a collection of Saint of Killers, The Story Of You-Know-Who and The Good Old Boys. The other three one shots are featured in Dixied Fried, War In the Sun and All Hell's A-Coming respectively.

Anyway, I personally enjoyed Ancient History it's still a good story and I thought it worked quite well.

I liked the story as well, but it really messes up the pace of the series. I think it is much better to read that book after the series is over, but it's just preference. I also REALLY hated the characterization of the devil in that book. He's such a pussy! I wanted him to be fearsome. Lucifer in the Sandman series is a much better devil.

Is there a 'big' book of Transmetropolitan? I've been looking around and the most compiled compiliations I've seen are still the trade paperbacks. I really like the 48-issue Walking Dead Compendiums, I was wondering what the 'largest' set of Transmetropolitan is.

I'd love to own a set of it, but I'd rather not have dozens of books on my shelves; I'd rather have a couple larger ones. Amazon isn't giving me very good results.

I read it and enjoyed it, but a lot of the plot was lost on me because I couldn't tell the dark-haired-men in suits apart. The art style couldn't carry the facial subtleties that are required for the corporate espionage-ish feel of the police end.

What a shitty, shitty movie that was. Seriously, an adamantium bullet? Fuck off. Don't even get me started on the characterization of the rest of the cast. That movie was so bad I think it, coupled with X-Men 3, ruined the first two X-Men movies for me.

But it doesn't tell you Joker's story, necessarily, it only gives you a glimpse into how his head works. He says he remembers it differently at different times, showing us how unstable and unreliable he is. Not to mention the story has great moments of instability on Batman's part, showing us how wacka-too he is as well.

I really wanted to like the Boys and I think the concept is good but it just ended up being a little lame. I read the first three collections and just stopped after that. If they had been totally normal dudes, instead of supers themselves, it would have been much, much better.

Yes YES YESSSSSS!!!!! Incredible collection of conspiracy theories, asian philosophy and mysticism, cultural subversion and a peyote button on top. If you are in your teens or early twenties, read it now!!

I recommend you aim for some manga. There's tons of it available for (essentially) free online (mangatoshokan's the best site by far, though other sites sometimes have much bigger libraries) and the community around it, though a little frightening and not very hygienic, is very dedicated to keeping everything fairly well organized and searchable. The classic 4chan recommendation image, if you decide to follow this advice. If you want non superhero stuff, this is going to be the biggest crop you can find. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Aria are the most serene and happy slice-of-lifes you will ever lay eyes on and Franken Fran is the among the best dark comedies I've ever seen in any format at all. Lots of other good there too, though undeniably a fair amount of terrible terrible terrible. But it's free*.

I'd deff recommend Hellsing by Kohta Hirano for an awesome, twisted take on the much abused Vampire. The vampires (especially the main man, Alucard, go ahead and spell it backwards) are monstrous, the artwork awesome, and the story itself is great.

That recommendation list is all over the place. It's got lots of great underrated series but is also missing some of the the best. Berserk, One Piece, Full Metal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter, etc... But perhaps those are all a little too much in the action/superhero genre. Even then, stuff like Yotsuba&!, Gintama, Usagi Drop, Death Note, etc are missing.

Still, it's an alright place to start i suppose. And i am happy Bleach and Naruto aren't on it! They are the Nickleback and Creed of the manga world.

Lol, that's fine. I think both are pretty much trash manga, but whatever, that's just my opinion, right?

One thing i will say about Naruto though is that the world in which it takes place is pretty awesome. Most of the characters and how they interact and the story-lines and just about everything else about the manga ruin it for me though. :/

I'm going to recommend one super-hero book because it will turn you on your head - Starman. Good read, about 80 issues total. Actually Astro City is excellent too. Might be filed under "Kurt Busiek's Astro City".

Well, in efforts to expand outside the realm of "dark ultraviolent anti-superhero," here's some suggestions:

Scott Pilgrim (one more volume soonish?) Fables (ongoing, but too fantastic to miss) Buffy Season 8 (if you're a Whedonite/tool/whatever- think this "season" is gonna be done at Vol. 9)Pride of Baghdad (phenomenal BKV story that many seemed to have missed) Blankets (for the old romantic soul) Bone (starts out funny, ends like LOTR) Mouse Guard (for if you've ever wanted to see a mouse gut a snake or take down an owl- ongoing still though, coupled with what seems like FOREVER for new volumes).

If you enjoyed Brian K. Vaughan's writing, then pick up the first volume of Ex Machina and give it a go. It's his ongoing series right now, the art is top notch, and the story, up to the second volume I've read, is entertaining so far.

The basic premise is that there is only one superhero on the planet, and he gets elected mayor of New York City. Fun! Not only does he have an original power that is used in innovative ways (he can "talk" to machines), half of the story focuses on actual political issues, which makes it a commentary of some sort.

You might not like it though if you aren't much interested in the schematics of trying to get snowplows across New York, and the collected volumes are only out in hardback so far.

If you are looking for great recent Marvel stories: for X-Men, get Grant Morrison's run of the New X-men, which comes in three paperbacks. However, this might require a bit of prereading, so the Ultimate X-Men Series started by Mark Millar, which begins and ends in one separate universe, may be more up your alley. Beware though: it comes in nine volumes. There is also Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run that comes in one honking omnibus; seeing how he is similar to Vaughan in terms of writing style, you might enjoy this one the most. It is only out in hardback though.

Outside of the X-Men, there is the recent Planet Hulk/World War Hulk storyline which is basically the green giant getting fucked over by Iron Man and friends, getting sent in exile to a far-flung planet, conquering said planet, and coming back with an alien commando army for some kick-ass revenge. The writing by Greg Pak isn't especially remarkable, but it establishes the story well enough, and the artwork is delicious. A good way to spend a rainy afternoon and to reconnect with the Hulk character. There is also the recent Red Hulk storyline with the great Jeph Loeb (more on him later) on board, but it is not up to par with his earlier efforts. Save it for last.

I've always found Spider-man curious in that there is really isn't a defining comic of his; nevertheless I found Spider-Man: Back in Black and Spider-Man, Peter Parker: Back in Black (yes they are two different titles) entertaining. I haven't read a main spidey story in ages and I didn't find this one hard to follow as it sometimes happens when you plunk yourself in the midst of an arc.

Since the two titles collect from all the different spidey books going on at the time (and there are many), there is a great variety of stories to read. The former has the main storyline with J. Michael Stracynski writing, and deals with Spider-man returning to the black costume after Aunt May is shot (oh no!). However, it gets to be a bit of "Emo-Spidey" sometimes and rather humourless, so be forewarned if you hated Spiderman 3. You do get a Sandman-oriented story, which is awesome. The stories in the latter are more of the classic Spider-man, with plenty of wisecracks and the Spidey we love. Plus some of the stories' art in this volume is fantastic, particularly the one drawn by Clayton Crain. Plus, when you have them both the spines form a kick-ass Venom logo.I would recommend against pursuing the next steps in the storyline however: both One More Day and Brand New Day were pretty terrible.

If you simply want to read Spider-Man in one single series without any backstory to get into, then pick up the Ultimate Spider-man series by Brian Michael Bendis. It has that classic Peter Parker-is-a-nerdy-teenager-and-has just-found-superpowers-awesome storyline, which may be due to the fact that Bendis based much on Stan Lee's original run. It goes up to eleven (yessir).

Other good Marvel series: The Ultimates by Mark Millar, which is another standalone interpretation of a Marvels mainstay, the Avengers. It comes in one big omnibus, but since it is the type of series that starts out great but with diminishing returns it might be better to get just the first two series (out of three). The third one is kinda sucky.

There is also J. Michael Stracynski's recent run on Thor, which is collected in three volumes. A good mythic yarn. Speaking of that, I have only read a few of the recent The Incredible Hercules series by Greg Pak, but from what I've read it is very funny and very good. Surprising, since he was considered a d-list character and after WWH I didn't take Pak as funny as he is here. No collections yet, but if you see an issue don't hesitate to grab it.

Now on to DC: First of all, let us get the big guy out of the way. There are probably no greater collection of stories on one character than Batman, and from him you can get Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and the Dark Knight Returns (I suggest you avoid The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All Star Batman and Robin, as they are good examples of when Miller takes his 'edgy' act to the point of ridiculousness); Alan Moore's The Killing Joke (probably the definitive Joker story and one of the rare cases where excellent cover artist Brian Bolland does interior work); Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's excellent trilogy The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Haunted Knight (the first two in particular are year-long epic whodunits that Christopher Nolan's Batman films take a lot of their narrative from); Grant Morrison's recent run on Batman had a rather entertaining if convoluted storyline, and you will find the best of it in The Black Glove and Batman R.I.P.(which is polarizing as fuck but worth a read nonetheless); there is also Grant Morrison's collaboration with Dave McKean in Arkham Asylum, which reads more like an artbook than a comic; and finally Neil Gaiman's recent Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, which as a very reflexive series is best read after reading every other Bat-book.

SUPAMAN: Of course, Alan Moore has to get mention here with his Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? which also includes a story with him battling Swamp-Thing. Yummy. There is also Mark Millar's Red Son, which is great as far as 'What-If' scenarios go--basically, what if Superman had landed in the USSR rather than the USA? As well, Grant Morrison pops his head up (again) in All-Star Superman, which comes in two volumes. And that's as far as I got for DC.

Individual series: Look at Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan for an example of a great dystopic sci-fi series, and it is currently being republished in shiny new paperbacks that will end at 10 volumes. You might be repulsed by it at first, but halfway through the first volume you will find yourself drawn towards it. Darick Robertson's artwork has plenty detail.

Garth Ennis' Preacher has just started to have its issues collected in hardcovers, expect paperbacks to come in another year. But don't wait: pick it up now! An original story throughout that is not afraid to discuss its religious themes; plus the main character tries to throw down with a hooky-playing God. Who wouldn't enjoy that? Ennis' writing keeps the story focused until the very end.

Runaways is another series by Brian K. Vaughan. It details the experiences of teenagers who are the spawn of superheroes, and come into terms with their own powers. So it is a bit like whenever the x-men have a new 'young' team. Be forewarned, the series is incomplete and stalled at the moment, and Vaughn has left it as well. But it is worth a pick-up. Joss Whedon also writes a few issues as well.

Fables by Bill Willingham is a very amusing and well-written series that deals with the fables we know from Hans Christian Andersen and Mother Goose being driven out of their world and into ours. So you have the wolf that blew down the three pigs' homes turned into a NY city detective. Snow White becomes a bureaucrat. It is way much more fun than it should be. It is close to hundred issues and it is still ongoing, and they just released the first collection on hardback.

No list is complete without a look at Alan Moore's other works, from V for Vendetta, to From Hell, to Tom Strong, to Swamp-Thing, to finally his excellent series with Kevin O'Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I assure you it is not at all like the horrible film). I actually make this my no.1 recommendation to you. The amount of references in this series is outstanding, and even if you were not interested in what pretty much were the comic book heroes of the past (I certainly wasn't), you certainly will take a renewed interested upon finishing one of these volumes. It may be nothing more than a glorified fan-fic, but on the other hand: Alan freaking Moore. What more can I say?

Frank Miller's Sin City if you like his rather brutal style. There are seven volumes but you don't necessarily need to own all seven, nor in order, as each volume contains its own story-arc.

Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. Probably the best of the 'realistic' superhero stories, and it is an entertaining story, but not much more. One volume so far, but more is probably to come.

Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man in the late 80's. Great fourth-wall breaking comic with an underappreciated character that could take on the power of certain animals. Collected in three volumes.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series can be hard to get into, but once you do it is incredible. 10 volumes, but you should be fine with starting with any of them, really. I recommend picking up no. 6 first, Fables and Reflections.

If you don't mind being horrifically disturbed, pick up Black Hole by Charles Burns. It details teenagers growing up in the 70s that mutate through sexual contact. Not for the faint of heart.

Chester Brown's Louis Riel is great; even if you have never heard of Louis Riel nor care, Brown's work is an excellent example of the power of graphic novel in the biography genre. Also, you get to learn some Canadian history! Yay!

I have not had a chance to read the Hernandez brothers' Love and Rockets series, but I certainly will after reading Gilbert Hernandez's Sloth. A very dreamy, visceral book that will require some rereading. The story at first seems to be about a young man who wakes up from a coma he willed himself into, and finds he cannot run--but then an abrupt change of both narrator and dimension changes and you don't know what to think. The artwork makes me think (probably unfairly) of Archie comics, but it makes the story all the more weird.

Joe Sacco is probably the best when it comes to depicting strife in the real world. My favourite of his is The Fixer, which examines an ex-soldier guiding reporters through the Bosnia conflict. What he says may or may not be true, but the resulting narrative is very affecting and surprisingly sympathetic, especially when Sacco depicts the warlords. There is also Palestine and the recently released Footnotes in Gaza, which covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with similar bleakness.

Guy Delisle also covers countries that have less-than-favourable settings, but he does it more in a removed, whimsical style. Burma Chronicles is my favourite of his; there is also Pyongyang and Shenzen.

Rick Spears is pretty underground so far, but he has produced plenty of work, my favourite being Dead West, which is basically the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with zombies. There is also Filler and Black Metal as well.

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley is technically Canadian but it has got that Japanese influence in it, not to mention tons and tons of references to video games and comic books. Highly fun to read, and the sixth volume will be coming out this summer riiiiiiiight before the surely awesome movie directed by Edgar Wright, he of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo is probably the classic of classic mangas, and right now it is being republished into volumes of paperbacks. The first one is out already. The story is more fleshed out than in the movie, so it certainly is an engrossing read.

If you're a 90s kid and feeling a little nostalgic, then why not check out Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z mangas. They are collected in VizBig editions, which is just fancy for being bigass volumes. This is as good as the shonen genre gets. Plus, you don't get all that filler crap.

If you want to go way back, check out the big daddy of manga, Osamu Tezuka, and his many works. The most recognizable is probably Astro Boy, but other good series are Buddha and Black Jack. MW is a great standalone title as well.

Naoki Urasawa recently did an update of Astro Boy called Pluto, and it is awesome. I also recommend him for his series 20th Century Boys, which is comparable to Lost in its sci-fi epicness, and Monster, a rather chilling character conflict between two doctors.

It may require a deep understanding of Japanese society to get all the references and puns (and by god, this manga practically seeps from the pages with them), but Koji Kumeta's Sayanora, Zetsubou-Sensei is still funny and weird as hell. As good a satire as you're going to get, this pretty much relentlessly skewers...well, everything. Not to mention that the two main characters is a teacher who tries to kill himself over and over again (yet fails) and his foil, an eternally optimistic to the point of freaky schoolgirl.

This is the last thing I've read so it is still fresh in my mind, but Natsume Ono's Not Simple is rather unique among mangas in both its artistic style and its focus on Western characters. The story, about a young man who is searching for his sister who may or may not be his mother, certainly lives up to its name and can be easily accused of confusion for confusion's sake, but it certainly acts as an interesting character sketch and a reflection of the way we treat our own families.

Finally, when it comes to recent shonen, grab all 12 volumes of Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata and be prepared to be wowed by the constant Xanatos Gambits. The story starts off simple, with a high school boy picking up a book that can kill people by writing their names into it, but it quickly spirals out of control. Sags a bit in the middle once a key character is removed, but finishes satisfactorily.

am I the only comic book nerd that HATES the term 'graphic novel'? I mean, it's like they made it up to make the books sound more legitament, when in fact they didn't need too, because fuck anyone who thinks that just because it's a comic I can't reach the same depths as any other kind of art. they didn't want in my sandbox before, but now they're going to call it something else and it's cool? fuck them!

this rant, by the way is not directed at the op or anyone else, it's just something that always sets me off.

but, for recomendations: I haven't seen a lot of small press stuff represented in here, so while I love most the regulars mentioned(Y, preacher, transmet, etc), I'll throw down on some wierder and/or less popular titles:

hey, wait... and I killed adolf hitler by jason

Hicksville

kramer's ergot (an anthology, the earlier volumes are cheaper than some of the monster current ones)

Maybe! As Wikipedia puts it, "It suggests a complete story that has a beginning, middle and end, as opposed to an ongoing series." Simply calling a long, collected story a "comic" seems limited. There's nothing wrong with distinguishing between a 22-page monthly publication and a longer, better-bound story or trade.

it looks like i have not expressed myself properly. i am not embarrassed by the term comic book. not one friggen bit. i'm very proud, in fact, to be a life long comic book nerd. hell, i have many different tattoos attesting to the fact. what i'm trying to say is that i believe that the term 'graphic novel' tries to hide the fact that it's a comic book or that it is some how different and therefore better.

it's just a little pet peeve of mine though. i know the terminology is here to stay. it still grinds my gears though.

What got me into graphic novels was Persepolis, believe it or not. Watchmen was my second and it's what really set me off reading every one I could get my hands on. I agree with every recommendation here:

V for Vendetta, Marvel: Civil War (originally written as a series of comics, but well drawn together into novel form), Final Crisis, Ghost World (not superheroes), The Surrogates (shitty movie, great novel, not superheroes), Bone, Hellboy, Maus, and look for graphic novel adaptations of classic literature as well. Some can be very good.

Also, if reading comics about comics sounds at all interesting to you, try "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.

I was a big fan of Top Ten, by Alan Moore. The premise is that there is a city where every inhabitant has super powers, and the story revolves around the police force of said city. It's been a while since I read it, but recall it fondly.

I started with the same two (Watchmen and Y) and got hooked! Here are my favorites (in order) so far:Death Note (the only manga I've read and it's amazing)The Walking DeadWantedFablesIrredeemableMarvels

Marvelman. It is a superhero story (so not perfectly to your request), but really carries out the idea of superheroes to its maximal extent.

This is widely viewed as Alan Moore's dry run for Watchmen; in my view it's better. He passed the series on to Neil Gaiman (of Sandman), and then it was cancelled when the publisher closed and the rights fell into an unbelievably drawn out legal melodrama (it's all Todd MacFarlane's fault). So it's hell to find a physical copy, but it's seriously worth downloading just because you can't get it anywhere else (for the moment: after 20 years, things have finally been settled and Marvel comics is likely to republish the series soon).

The basic idea: it's Alan Moore's retelling of Captain Marvel ("Shazam"), once the kid who turns into him has grown to middle age and forgotten his powers; and of what would really happen if there were beings of Superman-like powers walking the earth.

EDIT: The title and character were changed to "Miracleman" halfway through (again, rights issues), and the collections are under that name.

This isn't really a series, but it's so good I have to mention it. The name of the GN is "Man Without Fear", and it's a rehashing of Daredevils origins. Written by Frank Miller, it is simply outstanding. It was originally released as a series of 6 comics, but those are probably harder to find.

Holy shit! Just saw the htmlcomics link... Turns out it was only 5 issues, but here is the link.

Thank you so much for all the recommendations. I've decided to go with Ex Machina. (A friend has the series and I like Vaughn's storytelling) and then probably buy some Absolute Sandman. Took a look at Trans and didn't really jive with the art style.

I just finished watching the movie based on Bokko - Battle of the Warriors (got it from Netflix) and really enjoyed it. It's been years since I've read Bokko - it might be harder to enjoy the movie with the story fresh in mind. If you take the movie as based on and inspired by the book, you'll probably enjoy it as it's a great production in its own right.

Here's a pretty cool page from dccomics.com to help you find what you're looking for. It's actually called After Watchmen... What's Next? The only problem is that it only points you towards other DC-published reads.

EDIT: Also, has no one else hear suggested Swamp Thing? It's not necessarily about a superhero, and its also written by Alan Moore.

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